Diary Notes -- June 2009

June was such a happening month. I met Jasmine D' Costa, authour of 'Curry is thicker than water' at her book reading at 'The Host' downtown. Met many new people from the South Asian community. (Hey, I'd rather call us all 'desi' and hope no one minds.)
So yeah, here were people who had never looked back after entering this great country and single-mindedly having worked towards success had achieved their dream and a position of comfort.
The event was hosted by My Bindi.com and is headed by the very energetic Syerah Virani. If one wants to know the latest news, views and events in Toronto's desi-land, mybindi.com is where you'll get the most info.
I also went to the desifest at Dundas Square (details of which you can read in my article -- 'Being Desi'-- http://www.dawnnews.net/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/the-review/being-desi); the Luminato at the Harbourfront and then to the Mosaic festival at Square One Missisuaga.
Luminato was a real treat because I got to see performances of Cirque du'soleil' FOR FREE (it averages $150 per ticket) and then took a short ferry ride also for free.
Aah, it reminded me of my childhood days in Manora (an island in Karachi where I grew up and about which you will gradually be reading in my posts when i start the very boring exercise of reminiscing!).
I am still organizing my blog so bear with me if the entries become either too rapid or too delayed. But the plan is to treat visitors with a little something every week or even twice a week if I don't fall into the occasional lazy stupor that I have a tendency of.

Diary Notes- May 2009

I need to get off my high horse, say my friends if I want to adjust to living in Canada (specifically Toronto). Let me explain the state of my ‘High horse’. I don’t find anything in common to discuss with others from my home country, hence I am snobbish; I don’t find pizzaz in anything touted to be upscale and glamorous AND guzzling down the pricey fare from LCBO is so not my thing – so, here it is not aboutbeing on my high horse -- it is about adjusting to a style so very different.
I am from a big city too. A city with high velocity living and which stay awake 24-hours -- have you ever experienced a traffic jam anywhere at 3:00 am in the morning?? In Karachi, I have.
But that is not to say that Toronto has no charm. It has a unique peace which when you get used to, Karachi's din and clamour seems alien when you go back for a visit.
So now, I am at that in-between, neither-here nor there, stage.

Diary Notes- Jan 2009

The months have now definitely turned into years (1.5 to be precise). And the circle goes round and round and round. Oh, right, it’s a circle, it’s supposed to go round!

Well, some retail jobs and a few other temp jobs later, the question of ‘finding my feet’ still hangs in the balance. I would happily get into school which I am told is the best way to enter into the ‘mainstream’ (whatever stream that is, only these Torontonians know!) but that brings one back to the question of funds. Does one run a family or spend on education. ‘Take OSAP, take OSAP!’ screams every man Jack (and Jane) – and then happily spend the rest of your life in blissful debt! Really, cant understand these guys. The clamour to get loans and then spend them on fun and frolic in between some studies and THEN curse the Canadian government the rest of their lives for putting them in so much debt. Do they have warts on their brains or what. Loan, you know, it is spelt L.O.A.N. (Lending of assistance now – is the way I code that acronym!!) and which obviously concludes PAY LATER!!

So now (on a totally conjectured statistics) – I would say that 99.9 percent of Canadian citizens over 18 are in debt. Student loans, credit card debts, mortgages, car financing, store credits…you name it – they’ve run it up.

And guess what, all the time the Canadian government is to blame. I wonder which official comes to them regularly to go buy that home theatre or the shiny new SUV standing in the garage of their mortgaged home.

Diary Notes- Jan 2008

I can’t recount how many years (or is it still in months…?) it’s been since I too was an F.O.B. Suffice it to say that there’s been enough water under the bridge to make an optimist cum manic depressive cum workaholic cum egocentric out of me. I really could add a lot of other ‘cums’ to it but people might thing I’m saying the wrong thing and, well…let’s not make this messy!

The initial technicalities over with – the SIN card, health card, Pr card and whatever other cards etc that us lesser mortals need to get till we are logged into the official database – like all newly landed sould the fever pitch frenzy of job search gets underway. “Arrey, telemarketing kar lo”; “Nahin, retail sales is better and less stressful;” “Have you checked out Monster yet…” and on go the sages with advice of every kind. And it ends up becoming a monster in itself when the savings start disappearing by the dollar guzzling market and the emailed resumes only get an , “Thank you for applying for the position of blah blah blah. We appreciate your interest and will contact you should we decide to pursue your application…blah blah…”

ARTICLE ARCHIVE (FROM THE TORONTO SUN & Dawn) Is this the beginning of the End?

Though conflicting reports regarding the actual cause(s) of Benazir Bhutto’s death continue to mystify us, one fact remains: that Ms Bhutto is dead and Pakistan is facing the worst crisis of its 60-year existence. In fact, Pakistanis in Toronto feel their country’s very existence is now at stake and the turmoil in the aftermath of BB’s death is just the beginning of the end. While such doomsday predictions are not going down well with strong nationalists, it cannot be denied that all roads to sanity at this point remain barricaded by violence from within and without.

In Toronto, there is a large presence of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supporters who are devastated by their leader’s death. Yesterday, when the party members congregated at the Islamic Centre in Mississuaga for a memorial service following Friday prayers, the despondency was tangible. While the service was quiet and sombre, passionate feelings could not be restrained, “all is lost,” a mourner lamented. Malik Qadeer Awan, a senior PPP member in Toronto whose family back home is involved in active party politics talked of the dismal scenario now facing the party and in turn the country’s politics. “She was the only one holding the country together and the only national leader who transcended provincial boundaries in Pakistan to lead the country on. Now there is a vacuum within the national political arena. It is impossible to fill the gap and that void in national leadership will take the entire country down.”

While it was expected that Benazir’s supporters would end up rudderless without her, to call her the only hope for Pakistan is not an opinion easily digested by her opponents. “Why was there no successor prepared for such an eventuality?” Questions Asif, a senior software engineer from Pakistan who still supports Musharraf above all political leaders. “The main reason was that she was only after the power and hence this so called ‘void’ in the party leadership. What good did her government do in the two terms that it ruled the country besides looting national wealth? Pakistan has gone through many turmoils and I, for one, do not feel that one person’s death is going to break the country. The new General might take over but the country will still survive, Inshaallah,” he sums it up with a prayer to the Almighty.

Adding salt to injury for Pakistanis here is the ever-ready propaganda unleashed by the US media of everything being rotten in the state of Pakistan, which angers all nationalists and patriots. And if conspiracy theorists are to be believed it was Ms Bhutto’s open acceptance of towing the US line – regarding the nuclear bomb as well as its maker – that led extremist factions to ‘do away with her.’

Sami, who works for an energy company in downtown Toronto, left Pakistan seven years ago, but he still feels passionately about the country’s fate and follows its politics avidly. He says, “There is no doubt whatsoever that the US powers have a huge hand in manipulating Pakistan’s politics and politicians. Of course, it is mainly because our politicians are corrupt that this manipulation works, but nevertheless, it is extremely disturbing that my country in the end is a mere puppet in their hands. Hence, I feel that it is indirectly the US which is responsible for Benazir’s death because they convinced her of their support and urged her to return, holding the beacon of democracy. But look what happened? It now makes me feel that even this chaos was part of the grand plan.”

There are others like Sami who feel that her return was on US insistence. And while they lament her return to embrace death they also wonder if eliminating a political process in Pakistan is part of some covert agenda resembling that of Iraq.

However, apart from speculations on a covert agenda and variance in political opinions, there is no denying that Benazir Bhutto’s death has been a tremendous shock, reverberations of which are strongly being felt in the entire Pakistani community in Toronto. And seeing their country literary in flames, the distraught Pakistani expatriates can do little but make daily calls home to ensure that their family is safe and then stare in dismay at the grisly scenes of destruction relayed from home.

Justice takes a sweet course

It’s been a refreshing past two weeks in the media. The tonal change in the North American papers ever since Obama’s Cairo oratory is tangible. So perhaps one day we’ll forget the term ‘Muslim Terrorists’ ever existed and will be using instead the phrase, ‘Bush Crusades’ to describe post 9/11 scenario.

Whatever may his reasons be, we definitely owe Obama this one. ‘He needs the goodwill of the Muslim world for economic stability,’ says one analyst while another points out that ‘he wouldn't be addressing the Christian world, or the Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist worlds so why the exception for Muslims?’

For my part, the heck with such pontification! He came, he spoke, he conquered and he definitely left a lot of goodwill in his wake. But he was bound to. With charisma oozing out from every facet of his personality; knowing the art of oration to the last effective pause and above all, with the vast team to work for him (which reportedly was grammatically analyzing and evaluating every syllable in his speech for its combined effect from Jerusalem to Tehran to Washington!), success was bound to be his. One die-hard Republican almost sneered at me and commented, “Obama should stop giving speeches as if he’s still campaigning!”

What would be amusing if it wasn’t so distressing is the sudden eruption of newly established opinions of many latter day news analysts on television and in print. Ever since Obama has taken up the Palestine-Israel conflict as a major foreign policy issue it has become the urgent business of the newer breed of reporters to educate themselves on the conflict. But when you are living in an environment where the Holocaust is the most-repeated historic fact and where only Israel’s ‘beleagured residents’ can be seen being ‘fired upon with rockets by those terrorists Hammas,’ it eclipses the predicament of the Palestinian refugees unable to return home, living under siege with no supply of food and who are made to look like petulant but dangerous delinquents. The easiest argument becomes the anti-Semitic chant which the neo-analysts allege is the same as anti-Zionism which the Palestinian and other Muslims are using to persecute Jews. The western media really needs a few home truths and some history lessons to be shown.

One thing is there though, that Obama has proven himself undaunted by disagreeable consequences of his decisions. While his sangfroid to the rather pithy backlash from Conservatives at home following his salaams to the Muslim world is one case in point, his take on the closing of Guantanamo is another example. Despite the monumental issue of what to do with all those detainees following the closure of ‘Gitmo’ (as Guantanamo is now called in more loving terms!) and its multiple legal ramifications, he went ahead to seal his first presidential order and is now coming up with solutions for it too. And in a true ‘happy ending,’ the first batch of prisoners were relocated a little over a week ago landing from there hellish abode directly into the lap of heavenly luxury.

Four Muslim Uighur detainees from a group of seventeen – ranging in age from 30 to 38 – were sent to Bermuda after UK and Canada refused to keep them and when proposals to resettle them in the United States ended in a political furor. The Uighurs’ background is rather heart-rending. They were a group of men which had fled Chinese persecution of Muslims in western China and landed in Afghanistan in 2001. But as luck would have it, they had to run for their lives yet again when the Americans bombed their camp. Despite being unarmed, they were thought to be dangerous with terrorist links and were eventually turned in to the authorities by Pakistani villagers in return for American prize money.

When a litany of accusations was created for all Guantanamo detainees, the Uighurs were accused of training at Al Qaeda-linked camps too.

Now, after seven years of life in the Guantanamo prison – the conditions of which is public knowledge – these four detainees have officially been cleared by American officials and courts of any ties to global terrorism. Their obvious reaction at this point should be outrage and a barrage of legal suites filed for violation of human rights. Instead, they have said, “There's absolutely no hard feelings toward the U.S.” Because the ex-prisoners are happy to just (literally) bask in their freedom – under the Bermuda sun – diving deep into the blue waters to cleanse themselves from all their past worries.

Reports of their release and landing in Bermuda were reported in detail in Canadian papers particularly because Canada had considered them as a threat to national security, refusing to accept them. Incidentally Britain is still seething because Bermuda is the self-governing British overseas territory and the UK maintains that Bermuda’s Premier, Ewart Brown should have first consulted with the UK government before accepting the men. As for China itself – which incidentally wanted them back – it would probably have been the worst end to their nightmare because they would doubtless have landed to face extreme accountability (torture or execution).

The Toronto Star’s National Security Reporter, Michelle Sheppard, who met and spent the day with them on their island retreat, gave a touching account of their reactions. She wrote, “After almost eight years of captivity, each step of Khelil Mehmut's freedom is a little overwhelming… People call him by his name, not 278, his internee serial number… they seemed insulated in their ocean-side pink cottage, enjoying a fish lunch, a sunset swim and fielding the occasional media call,” (not to mention getting accustomed to the bikini clad damsels who roam the resort island!).

What with the turning sentiments against Muslims and now this miraculous change of circumstances for condemned individuals, I have become a believer again that justice will be done; it just takes its own time coming!

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Of US presidents past and present

Sitting on top of the United States of America can be pretty entertaining. And last week was one such very entertaining week for the Canucks (Canuck: a ‘pet name’ for Canadians by Canadians with some sort of vague genesis tracing back to the American Revolution).
Anyway, as I was saying there was substantial entertainment provided to the Canadians by their southern neighbours over the weekend which mainly came packaged in the shape of two of their ex-Presidents. In Toronto to talk about domestic and global issues facing Canada and the U.S., George W. Bush and Bill Clinton shared the stage in the Toronto Metro Convention Center on Friday for ‘A conversation with presidents,’ amid protests on the streets; jeers from every official and non-official comedian and sarcasm from RJs, VJs and DJs in general. “Will you be listening to the ‘informative’ talk of Bush on the weekend?” Asked one. “No, I already know how to tie my shoelaces,” replied the other.
But despite the free flow of sarcasm on talk shows and on radio, and amid banner holding protestors outside the Convention Center, 6,000 people – paying a sum of CAD $200 plus – still converged to hear Obama’s predecessors talk. No doubt about it that most went to see with their own eyes the sex appeal of Clinton and how W can’t help making a fool of himself. But while Clinton’s charm has not diminished apparently Bush has been working on his appeal it seems as the post-event media in Canada for Bush Jr has been quite flattering. Toronto Star columnist, Rosie Dimanno wrote, “Here's the shocking thing: As an contest between two men who once stood astride the most powerful nation on Earth, it was Bush – beleaguered, besieged, be-damned Bush – who scored higher on sheer entertainment performance.”
Perhaps away from the hawk-eyes of Rice and Cheney he has come into his own or maybe the solitary walks and cleaning up dog poop while walking his dog on his vast lawns has given him a heightened sensitivity. Whatever it is, the media, while not actually gushing, were pretty complimentary of Bush’s self deprecatory manner and easy handling of tough questions. And reports state that he in fact received a commendable applause when he defended the most damaging act of his presidency, the Iraq War, by saying, “…Getting rid of Saddam Hussein made the world a fundamentally more peaceful place..!”
Interestingly, the media persons invited were only allowed to take notes. No tape recorder or camera was allowed in and hence, no media reel of the event was made available to the public by any news channel. Just as well, I suppose because those of us who love to hate Bush would have been sadly disappointed by his recovery/transformation into a charming, and ‘allegedly’ quick-witted man that he seems to have become. Well, since he’s not planning anymore wars I suppose he’s learning the PR ropes more effectively.
Incidentally, both men had even discarded their party politics and actually defended each others’ actions vis a vis Bush’s Iraq decision and Clinton’s inaction in Rwanda.
Canadians have recently been fuming under a new law that became effective last Monday which requires Canadians as well as Americans to have passports while crossing borders. But when the issue – which will result in severe impediments to businesses and the work force across the two countries – was brought up by the mediator (Frank McKenna, a former Canadian Ambassador to the US), both ex-Presidents came up clueless. While Clinton gave a quick reply in earnest concern saying, “I didn’t know, I promise you've got my attention...I’ll see if there’s anything I can do..” Bush simply looked confounded and said “I don’t know anything about the passport issue…what happened about the (E-Z) pass?” Of course The Star was quick to turn this ignorance into a healthy joke coming up with a cartoon the next day showing a harassed Bush without a passport not being allowed back into the US while crossing the border in his limo and the US immigration officer asking on the phone, “We HAVE to let him back in?”
In a different twist over the weekend the first US couple too made interesting news when the Republican National Committee (RNC) ruined their weekend by splashing a news release on President Obama and first lady Michelle’s date in New York. On late Saturday afternoon, the Obamas were seen jetting across with aides and media on a military plane to first see a Broadway play and then to dine at ‘Blue Hill, a West Village restaurant.’ Incidentally, this was a date that Obama had promised his wife while they were both working hard on the campaign trail. The RNC’s press release which immediately followed the date-trail, rebuked Obama saying that he says he understands ‘Americans' troubles, but then hops up to New York for, a night on the town.’ The release stated; “…Putting on a show: Obamas wing into the city for an evening out while another iconic American company (GM) prepares for bankruptcy.”
The poor chap’s romantic evening must eventually have ended on approving the draft of a White House response to his amorous attempts towards his own wife! Though one can’t help but admire the system which puts the most powerful man in the free world through an accountability process (which is especially baffling to Pakistani citizens who have uncomplainingly paid for uncountable personal travels of presidents past and present).
And now as a final round up on news of interest happening in the US it would be appropriate to mention here that Jay Leno wrapped up his role as host of the Tonight Show after 17 years of hosting and after taking it over from Johnny Carson. Typical of Leno, he was neither soppy nor tearful during his farewell appearance. In fact he couldn’t keep away from his customary jabs and ended by accrediting his successful shows to a few who kept his show alive. He said, "I have to thank some people who made the show a success - Michael Jackson, Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton... When I started this show, my hair was black and the president was white. ...and …the legacy I leave behind are the 68 children of staffers born during the 17 years of my show…” A dignified farewell, indeed.

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The humanitarian dilemma

It’s relatively easy to win a war but difficult to conquer a people. The Sri Lankan government might have forced the Tamil Rebel fighters to lay down their arms but the destruction which the intensive military action has wreaked in no way spells peace in the region for a long, long time. In fact the morality of the action is fervently being questioned by Tamil communities settled in North America and other western regions.

When the crisis in Sri Lanka escalated, so did the dilemma faced by the Canadian government thousands of miles from the actual fray. For weeks past as the action between the Sri Lankan military continued to rage, supporters of the Tamil Eelam Tigers thronged the streets in Canada’s main cities protesting against the ‘genocide’ being carried by the Sri Lankan military against the civilians in Tamil.

Picketing ferociously at main public avenues; marching on busy downtown streets and even blocking a busy section of the highway; the supporters of the Tamil Eelam Tigers forced not only the government but ordinary Canadians to take notice of their issue.

Who are the Tamils? Why do they call themselves Tigers? Why do the have knives embellishing their flag? Why are their innocent family members being killed by their government? These and many other questions were soon raised and the local media scrambled to educate itself on the Sri Lankan/Tamil conflict of centuries past.

And that began their dilemma. The LTTE they realized was not only an internationally banned outfit but its early members were the ones to conceptualize and perfect the ‘art’ of suicide bombing!

But being painfully correct in their ‘humanitarian’ outlook, the Canadian government – despite acknowledging the LTTE as a terrorist organization – could not bring itself to either ignore the call for humanitarian assistance against the bloodshed being wreaked by the military in Tamil occupied territories in Sri Lanka nor could they condemn the LTTE supporters in Canada for critically disrupting their life on almost a daily basis.
Traffic hold-ups are not taken tolerantly here as time is truly money and the wage being cut by the minute is not acceptable to any worker. When the Canadian Tamils decided to protest by picketing on the main streets, especially in the densely populated city of Toronto, the workforce was held up by many hours in the city centre for consecutive days. And then when the police first began to intervene with force, they were immediately condemned for hindering a legal Canadian’s ‘freedom of expression.’ And it soon became a catch 22.

Editorials and columns started flooding on the rights of these ‘free’ Canadians to protest peacefully against an issue if they so feel and the intolerance and apathy of the average Canadian – enjoying a first world ‘free’ existence – to the problems of lesser mortals outside this safe haven. Discriminatory sentiments were called into question and Canada’s actual commitment to diversity was deemed superficial.

The police eventually found a middle ground and in the name of protecting the protestors the police force continued to ‘surround’ the Tamil Canadians every time they came out. Mounted police was employed, guardsmen monitored traffic flow and the Tamil Canadians were allowed their space despite frowns from many inconvenienced civilians who wouldn’t care two hoots for the freedom of expression if it was impeding their daily existence. The result was that the Toronto police has now forwarded a bill of CAD$ 900,000 to the federal government as cost for manning the Tamil protests, sorry, the ‘Canadian Tamil’ protests.

While no one is really laughing their way to the bank here in the death-filled aftermath of the military action, being a Pakistani one can’t help but draw a parallel to the situation in Swat. What if immigrant ‘supporters’ of the Taliban decide to start picketing in Ottawa against the innocent civilian deaths in Swat, Lower Dir and Mingora? What if they too start shouting slogans of ‘stop military action in Swat’ and hold Tamil Canadian-style peaceful protests in downtown Toronto? Will this too be looked on as ‘freedom of expression’ by this very western media with the protestors given police protection? Or will they be clapped up behind bars and sent to an unknown prison as ‘supporters of Taliban and Al Qaida’ and hence stand culpable? The dimension such a situation would give to the war on terror in Pakistan and on Pakistanis is terrorizing in itself.

Freedom of expression has many expressions of its own. And diversity and inclusiveness cannot escape a hidden undertone of discrimination altogether either and it is tricky being politically correct at all times. It would be most uncomfortable to see the ‘polite Canadians’ facing the humanitarian dilemma if protestors come out on the streets to stop an alleged ‘genocide’ in Swat.

Many international calls for ‘restraint’ were issued to the Sri Lankan military but the action raged on and has now ended in victory declared by the Sri Lankan government. But much depends on what the Sri Lankan authorities choose to do next and how they ‘win’ the Tamils’ trust. Because currently the Tamils are garnering much sympathy and the military action could have given birth to a new generation of Tamil supporters, both within and in settlements across the globe. The crowds of protestors are proof of this as the majority amongst them were students ranging from 10 to 21.

Same fears come to mind regarding the military action in Swat. Like the Lal Masjid debacle where Pakistanis settled in foreign countries could only see the belligerent military action on ‘helpless women and children in the masjid’, so too the humanitarian crisis arising out of the Swat action might find a new generation of supporters being created for the Taliban whose barbarism might be overshadowed by the civilian casualties and human tragedies.

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Quelling the roar of gunfire

Front page newspaper splashes on militancy in Pakistan; op-ed columns on the imminent advent of Taliban rule in Pakistan and pithy comments on lack of political will to right things within Pakistan; such is the recurrent intelligence keeping our glorious nation’s name alive and bandied about in foreign lands. Following the ‘liberty’ of Nizam-i-Adl to brandish its powers, the collapse of the so-called peace deal in Swat and the subsequent military action, Pakistan and its many imbroglios have hogged the top story slot across North America and particularly in Canadian newspapers, all days of the past two weeks. How I wish it were a triumphant achievement relating to a first Pakistani Nobel laureate; a recognition as the most peaceful and tolerant Muslim state or an award for a country with the best literacy rate. Alas, there is no triumph to be derived from the current first history drafts coming out of Pakistan.

Depressed at the horrifying tidings from home, for some days past I have devoted/diverted my attention to the entertainment section knowing that there at least nothing would be found about my (allegedly) beloved country, to cry over my morning tea. And lo! I was actually rewarded last week! In the daily Entertainment section of Toronto Star which includes news of showbiz, theatre, arts and the literary world, there was a full page coverage of Kamila Shamsie’s visit to Toronto who (I belatedly remembered getting a note from the South Asian Journalists Association to come meet her) gave a reading from her Orange Prize-nominated novel, Burnt Shadows at the very ‘happening’ center of the arts, the Harbourfront Centre. The coverage had an accompanying interview marked with the headline, ‘Pakistani writers making a mark’. To read, “Country experiencing literary renaissance…” was like an oasis in a stormy desert full of words like, “The Taliban are all around” and “Pakistan basically Taliban state.”

And it got me thinking that despite being in the thick of political turmoil almost incessantly since birth, the various arts of living have given Pakistan many reasons to celebrate victory – though sporadically of course. Pakistani performers, artists, sportsmen, writers and even media companies have all been at some point or the other soldiers of harmony, bringing home occasional laurels. And most times it has been individual efforts or occasional team spirit. None of it has had much to do with national backing.

Atif Aslam and Shafqat Amanat are currently singing heroes in India – a country where singing and learning to sing is part of religion. Our writers – a case in point already mentioned – are fast winning top nomination spots, with Mohammad Hanif just days ago walking away with $9000 for the Commonwealth writers prize for the best first book honours. And there are many insignificant individuals sprinkled all over the country who in some way are contributing to re-painting Pakistan’s canvas to show a picture other than the one currently advertised with daggers and bayonets on a blood red backdrop.

Quelling the roar of gunfire from home are also the ‘exploits’ of our national painting hero – Jimmy Engineer – who keeps popping up in the international press sporadically to give a peaceful hue to our colour green. Recently he too was on a trip to the US with prints of his latest serving. These are breathtaking creations depicting a montage of Pakistani and International architecture. I personally rate him as a modern-day Michelangelo, re-creating the painstaking tradition of Renaissance work which is not to be found in this age of digitally orchestrated creations, bizarre installations and non-methodical madness of abstract art (Picasso must be turning in his grave for unleashing the art monster in many with no sense of colour or design).

While in Houston for the showing of his work, Engineer was honoured by the mayor of the city for his ‘outstanding work’ and given the status of honourary citizen of Houston. In this climate of distrust against every and anything Pakistani, this is a creditable accomplishment and some much needed change of opinion even if it’s a mere drop. In Toronto too Engineer has an ongoing exhibition of prints from his architecture series and visitors are awestruck by the man’s amazing prowess of detailing and merging perspectives. Visiting the show many times I have heard exclamations from visitors who wonder whether this is actually hand work and also that it is ‘nice to know’ such work is being done in Pakistan.

But we do know that this and many other worthwhile work continues to carry on. And despite petty politics, despite red tapism and despite hooliganism at cultural events, hopefully the arts will continue to find a way of expression. We are still at quite a distance from the age of emancipation and it is too much to believe that we will ever come close to that era in which Islamic arts – architecture, painting, ceramics and calligraphy – not only flourished but became the hallmark and trendsetters of culture.

Rediscovering our secular and aesthetic self will take a lot of doing and for that we will have to still more harshly repel the ideology that quells all things peaceful (i.e. the Taliban ideology).

In the mean time though – bring on the music and bring on the arts! Let music truly become the food for our survival. Be it poetry, literature, theatre – all our areas of excellence – let the show go on even as gunfire approaches. Remember Titanic (the movie) and how the last ones to go down were the diligent musicians?

Pakistan is not a sinking ship – yet. And while our military shows its might at one end of its border our creative, performing and visual arts communities must not forget that therein lies the ability to bring some solace to the people’s wounds and to show the world that there is more (good) here than meets the eye.

So more power to our cultural might and may the number of our rising stars increase to create a stream of complimentary headlines.

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No trail to blaze

A young Chinese author’s interview published last week in the Toronto Star caught my attention, mainly because it echoed my own feelings; “I have always loved writing – it has been a way of making sense of my life,” she had commented. Zhang Lijia is a Chinese journalist and the recent author of an international bestseller, Socialism is great! The book is Zhang Lijia’s memoir of life in China of the 1980s and how she worked as a teenager in a factory producing missiles; endured the rigid authoritarianism of early communist rule of Mao and when the illusion of communism was spent, how she drove herself to study English and explore her intellectual independence. From supporting the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest to chronicling the changes in her own life, Zhang also details the historic shift in China which has now enabled it to become the world's fastest-growing economy.
But what was pertinent in her interview was her assessment of how idealism has evolved: “I loved the 1980s,” she says. “There was so much idealism…people were pushing the envelope, testing waters….but China doesn’t have that urgency anymore…there wont be another 1989..(because) the urban intellectuals, the urban elite are content. And without intellectuals, without students, no movement can really be called a movement…”
I think that succinctly sums it. We don’t have a unanimous movement. Our elite – despite all the drawing room talk of ‘must do something against Talibanization…’ are plush enough to be called content. Our students have either no clue what they want from the future or are content in living the street life. As for our intellectuals – who has the time to listen to them? We are so entrenched in a discordant world that we don’t have any idealism.
When the media community celebrated the International Press Freedom day on May 3 for the 16th year going, due acknowledgments again flowed out for their crusading comrades who were brutally silenced by fanatics of varying kinds in near and far flung corners of the globe. In Iraq, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan or Columbia, the stories recalled by different international press groups had similar ends where editors and reporters were shot dead, imprisoned, tortured or threatened with dire consequences to the family. Each were simply doing a job and following through on their mandate as journalists of integrity. But that is nothing new. There are sincere and scrupulous journalists in every country – maybe less than a handful in some countries but nevertheless still present. And not just present, but making their presence felt since times of early history and contributing in turning the tide of world events and in shaping geo-politics. Some become accidental heroes by stumbling on something huge like the Watergate scandal and some follow a heroic path in conflict zones like Palestine; Kashmir, Somalia or Iraq, pursuing truth and justice relentlessly to get gunned down in the process.
But like I said, these stories are nothing new. The cataclysmic events of the past and current centuries have seen many such heroes and heroines make a mark while trailblazing onwards to become a historic reference. In Pakistan too we have had many and since listing a few often throws the rest into default oblivion, I won’t name any. Somewhere however in the mire of extremism the ‘idealistic’ goal got changed and sadly now, there is no trail left to blaze! Because it’s not about bringing a change anymore. It is about being part of the popular tide of change.
Interestingly, on the opposite side of the spectrum in a first world country, there is a unique element of bringing about change even in the most mundane aspects of life. In Ontario Canada, the person who won the Journalist of the year title at the 55th annual Ontario Newspapers Awards on World Press Freedom day had written an ‘investigative’, 13-part series on farming, the environment and ethics of meat eating. He was awarded for his ‘insightful’ look into the life of a pig and how to raise it, watch it get slaughtered, eat it and then write about it. The judges’ comments on the story included, “he gives us reason to believe and hope that this type of journalism will survive against the current gloomy forecasts of the future of newspapers.” Unbelievable, isn’t it? No Third World country person can relate to that. It’s not that Canada does not have its fair share of crime and political bungling taking place to report in the press. But their priority is to furiously guard their national mandate which includes diversity and inclusiveness. Hence, crime will always take second place to a story that brings out the Canadian spirit.
In Pakistan, we desperately need a unifying spirit, a national cause on which there is no dissent. And such a cause is impossible to expect from the political set up where mistrust, avarice and antagonism is the manifesto. For a movement like the one Chinese author Zhang Lijia talks about the issue has to touch our inner human recesses and be beyond the reach of greed and malevolence.
At present there is only dissent for the sake of dissent – everyone must have a leaning and hence everyone must be in opposition of some ideology. And lo, we have an ideology-less nation!
We need a movement which rejects a unified evil – death, destruction, war. But in this climate of political bickering we are lacking one common enemy. Instead there are multiple enemies and friends of enemies and we get mislaid on the path to freedom itself. It doesn’t appear that anyone wants matters solved. People just want to be heard. And since the conflicting views are creating a high velocity din, the louder you shout the more you’ll be heard. Perhaps there should be a movement of observing silence for an hour everyday. Let’s be silent so that our plea of peace may be heard.

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Politics of shame

“Khoon key dhabbey dhulein gey

kitni barsatoon key baad…” Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Another dark mark on our Muslim legacy; another welt on a woman’s fragile innocence; another sin on our collective conscience. As the country reels with the shameful impact of the flogging incident in Swat, the international media shrieks yet again of barbaric Islamic customs and Pakistan as a safe haven for Talibans and their occupation programme.

Already our dossier on women’s abuse is thick and nauseating. It was in 1984 that the educated classes first got wind of the prevalence of such abuse when the infamous Nawabpur incident hit the media focus. A group of seven women had been paraded naked by influential men and a union council member as an act of revenge. The incident was discussed in hushed tones and never in the presence of children. But growing up in a politically aware environment, listening to aggressive Zia-Bhutto conflict arguments amongst elders had created in most children of that age an awareness of the nasty wind of change. And that wind only became nastier when pictures of public flogging and news of demonising Islam made it to the conscience stirring magazines and papers headed by a breed of journalists for whom justice and spreading the truth was the only professional Gospel. But since that was the cruel era of the newly formulated Hudood Ordinance, it was easy to pin it all on the evils of Zia’s dictatorship. Little did the literati know that such crimes would become the hallmark of our nation’s and our religion’s identity.

In recent times these incidents have assumed a proportion that can’t even be justifiably chronicled. To name a few; in 2006 there was the widow in Khanewal whom a group of men stripped naked as a punishment for her son’s alleged misbehaviour with their female cousin; in 2004 half a dozen men kidnapped two sisters from a field somewhere close to Multan, disrobed and paraded them in the village at gunpoint, threatening other women with death if they came to their aid. In 2002, a woman was paraded half-naked, after having her head and eyebrows shaved and her face blackened, in southern Punjab after a jirga refused to listen to her reasons for leaving her husband. And on and on it goes.

Since the Hudood Ordinance became the ignoble thorn in our justice system to use as a lever to gain political control, women, like religion have become a tool for every nefarious design. The insult of a woman is the biggest shame for every society (all are innately patriarchal) hence, using her as the tool will always have the most impact.

And such was the case in the Swat incident. So many targets were hit by just defaming a lone, 17-year-old, helpless girl – the Taliban’s reiteration of their agenda; the hidden conspirators’ motive of keeping the Taliban monster alive; the defamation of Islam; Pakistan’s role in harbouring militancy and of course certain parties’ claims that theirs is the only power to keep Taliban insurgency from entering our big cities. While all, one or may be none of these motives might be right, it was one poor woman who ended up serving multiple political agendas.

On a visit some time ago to the women’s jail in Karachi, the stories of the inmates had one stark resemblance – they were all ‘allegedly’ framed by men for a personal purpose. Out of 241 inmates 69 were under trial prisoners booked for zina.

When Musharraf’s regime was harping on enlightened moderation and women’s right at international forums, in most North Western areas of Pakistan women were being prevented from filing their election papers and were barred from casting their vote in the local bodies’ election of 2001. In one constituency in Lower Dir, out of 204 seats reserved for women in the 34 union councils, 196 remained vacant, as only eight women managed to file their nomination papers.

It was declared by the rulers of the land that all religious rites of women candidates and voters including marriage ceremonies and funeral rites would be boycotted. Going a step further to ensure submission, these leaders declared that this ban would also extend to the families of all such women who violated the agreement against the participation of women in the elections.

It isn’t too hard to understand why women as political tools are a good ‘marketing strategy’. Look how much viewing time the TV channels got out of this hideous incident? The amazing phenomenon of being hijacked by the electronic media is assuming gargantuan proportions and it is baffling how an audience of nearly 170 million becomes enslaved by the news and views pouring in live 24/7. And while theatrics are now the main occupation in the country, TV anchors continue to outdo each other to get a piece of the glory (or shame). In the case of the Swat incident, obscure experts appeared magically once again to add to the nausea created by the repeated telecast of the flogging video. With each channel customarily outdoing the other in coming up with a new angle to the story, all kinds of balderdash bordering on blasphemy went on streaming for countless hours. One Mullah actually came on to demonstrate the correct ‘Islamic way’ of flogging! And we wonder why the West thinks us heathens worth crushing out with military force!

We are at history’s most shameful crossroads. The politics of shaming women and using religion is the new world order and getting out of this abyss appears impossible. The pit created by Taliban will go on becoming deeper if we simply defend Islam every time they come up with a new way of abusing it. The Talibans have nothing to do with Islam just like every conflict around the globe where religion is merely a tool and women, collateral damage.

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Communication mania

I have been inundated with an outpouring of comments on my opinion on Facebook. Really, none of my other which I would consider more worthy pieces, have ever elicited such a response. I seem to have hit some nerve – raw or ripe – of many who are caught in the web that the ‘social utility’ website has spun. I am just amazed that despite having strong sentiments regarding its many negative facets people are still riveted to it as if it’s a life line which if let go would spin everyone into a dark place.
I realized that it is social obscurity that has people running to join in any and every popular forum. And since everyone cannot make it to the television to ‘be seen’ the internet is a great second option of being an entity and to connect with a wide social audience. In fact the connectivity via Facebook type portals is much more intimate – so much so that you even know when the other person is eating lunch and when they are visiting the loo!
The stamina of keeping up with constant communication amazes me. The continuous flow of opinions, loose talk and crude bitchings in the form of blogs, emails and painstakingly made power point documents show an obsessive need of every aficionado making a point on any and every subject. Particularly in Pakistan the trend of ‘opining’ has spiraled out of control. With the television now offering countless channels, every Tom, Dick & Harry and Jane, Anne & Mary (or Tariq, Danish, Hamid and Jannat, Ayesha and Mariam if you’d rather I localized it!) has an avenue of screaming their gullets sore on some issue or the other.
While every host has donned the insolent persona of Tim Sebastian thinking that the ruder; the better, every talk show guest comes armed with a verbal whip that he/she lashes out at every opportunity. The din resonating from the idiot box has finally justified the nickname given to the TV. An idiot box, breeding idiocy in every form. As to the audience, it is actually sad to see them lap up all the uncouthness radiating from the TV which they devour perhaps to assuage their own pugnacious instincts. It’s a decaying mesh of jabbering maniacs feeding on a voyeuristic audience which sits in their lounges probably chanting, ‘kill, kill’!
And while the penchant for being acclaimed as a person of consequence and freely voicing high flown judgments is high, manners to conduct any conversation are non existent. When the internet and television does not fulfill people’s garrulous needs, the infernal cell phone comes in to create a cacophony when it is least needed. Poor Graham Bell must be turning in his grave on the form his prized invention has taken. He, whose family worked on elocution and speech and the fact that his deaf mother and wife led him to research on instruments of hearing, could not be resting in peace to know what a rude piece of equipment his creation has turned into.
Come hail or high water people now feel compelled to talk on their cell phones. Again their innate fear of having life leave them behind urges them to continue communication even if there is a blaring ‘silence please’ sign staring them in the face. The other day at a theatre where some wonderfully well acted plays were in progress cell phones kept ringing in every ill-bred ring tone imaginable. Despite the organizers’ repeated plea before the start of the play to ‘strangle the phone’ during the performance, countless members of the audience disregarded the norm and had their phone bell on ‘loud’. There was one gent actually sitting in the first row and audaciously having a loud conversation during the enactment. Etiquette be damned, was probably his motto! Another boorish gentleman sitting in front of me was actually emailing from his Blackberry throughout the performance. And at every message received, the phone would make an irritatingly choking sound.
Will the world die if we are not available to everyone all the time? What is this mania of constant communication? The world progressed in leaps and bounds before the cell phone, the net and the cable TV was anywhere on the horizon. And it will still continue if one individual does not talk on the phone while sitting in a theatre. The obsessive need to be in constant connection is only ruining the quality of our existence in times which are already too traumatic.
Having an hour’s meaningful discussion with your child on his future aims and ambitions will far outweigh the profits that a market player might make by using his Blackberry even on a vacation. And despite that usage, he will still not be able to stop the financial meltdown. And better than finding out what latest post a fellow Facebookite has posted on the wall would be to go cuddle up with your spouse/parent/child. It so doesn’t make sense to me to spend time on virtual activity with virtual contacts rather than showing real love to real people in real time.

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Another ‘reset’ button please

This is the age of shifting sands. Change is coming faster than we can record it. A black man presides in the White House; Al Qaida is no more as dangerous as is Lashkar-e-Taiba and there is a chance of negotiations opening with the Talibaan. Just six months ago these facts could have made excellent punch lines for a ‘Tales of the impossible’ kind of thriller programme. Of course these are geo-political needs defined by the hour. But so it is and with black merging with white, many defined lines of long standing enmities are changing.

When Hillary Clinton met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva during the course of her first European tour as Secretary of State last month, there was speculation as to how far Hillary’s charm would work towards assuaging Russian sentiments injured by her predecessor, Condoleeza Rice. To ensure a new start to the relationship, Hillary went armed with an actual ‘reset’ button to initiate a congenial beginning. It was a canny idea to hand over to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a button in a green box tied in green ribbon, a continuation of Joe Biden's overture that the Obama administration is hitting the reset button with Russia after Bush & co’s ruination of the state of relative peace fostered by Bill Clinton.

The ‘reset’ button strategy however made more headlines than bargained for when the Russian FM received the gift with a label in Russian affixed on the box and told Hillary Clinton, "You got it wrong!" The word her staff had written was — ‘peregruzka’ — meaning ‘overloaded’ or ‘overcharged’ rather than ‘reset’. But the faux pas was taken in good stead by both parties and making light of the foul up, Lavrov’s comment was, "We reached an agreement on how `reset' is spelled in both Russian and English — we have no differences between us any more,” and the two went ahead to push the button together to show they share a desire for improved relations.

The reset button may or may not result in breaking through serious issues between these long-standing rivals but at least the meager attempt will make some dent towards thawing the cold Russian rival. And if Obama’s overt intention of garnering strength to make this world a more peaceful place are real, then perhaps there are a few more reset buttons in the making.

His intentions toward mediating a Middle East peace deal are being repeatedly aired, together with the olive branch extended towards the Muslim Ummah in his inaugural address, it is possible that the commitment of hate unleashed by Bush on Muslims may be ‘reset’ towards a commitment to peace and hopefully Muslims and terrorists might go back to being two separate words. The trick question here is how will the Muslims of the world handle a reset button? Or to put it more bluntly are they ready for a peace deal in the Middle East or anywhere?

The overwhelming desire to draw retaliatory blood has stifled the plea of peace which is the inner need of generations of strife-born people. But it is difficult to forgive years of brutality and with the US history of abetting the might of Israel, it is natural that Obama’s gambit will always appear garbed in covert agendas aimed at fanning Jewish policies and world domination.

But then how to make the blood letting stop? Sometimes a loose straw has to be clutched at to save a life. And if there is even half an intention of peace – imbalanced though it might be – prudence should become the better part of valour. The Muslim world has to redefine itself and must decide to shake hands with the enemy in the name of peace. We have to ‘reset’ our priorities and sign a vow against bloodletting.

The Crusades lasted for nearly 300 years before the Age of Reason descended. The Muslims of the world have to draw on reason to gain a higher moral ground which we have lost in war cries of every brand. Religion has become a prop for land control and freedom fighters now have ‘terrorist’ as epitaph. There is divided sentiment for the Talibaans in Swat and elsewhere as with Hammas’ strategy of guerilla warfare. Why is our pugnacious instinct stronger than our commitment to peace?

The Muslim Ummah desperately needs a ‘reset’ button, two in fact – one for internal reorganization and the other hopefully extended towards them by the West. It is probable that Obama might have one in the offing for us. But it won’t work unless we rediscover our inner harmony and accept the laying down of arms even if it means losing territory. Inanimate land must take second place to human sanctity. This however requires magnanimity of a kind difficult to envisage in the current season of confrontation and hostilities.

But taking a page out of the Russian book, it is time to reassess our more pressing needs. The once giant Republic now stands broken into small territories and still has a significant presence on the world stage. And above that it even has the grace to laugh off a diplomatic blunder which its erstwhile KGB would probably have started a war on! But perhaps that was Hillary’s charm which averted the disaster. I wonder though how Palin would have dealt with her Russian counterpart in such a situation? She’d probably have winked and said it is a new Russian way of spelling and would have promised to wave him goodnight every evening from her bedroom window in Alaska!

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Theory of relativity

Einstein could not really have known the far reaching relevance his theory would assume. But a bit of pondering at his celebrated philosophy reveals a close resemblance to almost all things – may they be routine, rare, mundane or momentous. Dealing with the laws of physics and the dynamics of motion, Einstein’s theory of relativity (improvised later by Galileo) is about how various observers will define one uniform motion. It all depends on the position of the observer.
One need not be a good science student to understand the relevance this may bear on many a life’s aspect. Wealth/poverty; contentment/discontentment; morality/immorality; truth/honesty; youth/old age in fact even seasons have become relative terms – it just depends from where you look at it, and once you do, it is interesting how everything begins to appear in a relative light.
Take winter for example. Last week I left -25 degree centigrade and landed in +20 temperatures. And when in the night it dipped to something around 18 degrees, someone commented, it’s become chilly again. In Toronto it would definitely be called warm! Again, age depends on where you’re at; 40 can be old for an 18-year-old (my daughter for example who keeps calling me ‘a hundred years old’) but still very young for someone over 70. So in truth, it’s the laws of physics which dictate our notions, judgments and subsequently our actions.
It was a trivial incident which jogged the ‘relative theory’ into my memory. While I waited with my friend to do her business at a high-end jewelry shop, a fellow customer was contemplating whether to go ahead with what the jeweler was suggesting. The debate: to buy or not to buy the 4.5 million rupee diamond set. She said that the price seemed ‘a bit’ steep; he said, it looked great and she should not cut corners. What a stark contrast between affordability of one as opposed to poverty of another. Rupees4.5 million is not a small amount by general standards to spend even on jewelry. And if you’d ask your domestic help, they’d tell you that at least two small houses can be made in 45 hundred thousand rupees. I wondered if my old maid still lived in the makeshift shack of bamboo and leaves, with her six children and nincompoop husband, or had she managed to build four walls with a solid roof over her head which wouldn’t flow away every monsoon – her only ambition in life. With her last salary of Rupees 5000, I doubted it.
When the current economic recession began spreading its vicious tentacles, reactions of fear and panic were immediate. But the repercussions felt by individuals translated into different realities. For some it meant job losses for others it meant profit losses. Sadly it were the profit losses of some which resulted in job losses for millions. But such is the circle of life or rather, the web of the money market which while played by a small percentage of the world population controls the economic destiny of the rest of the people of the universe. And unfortunately, each group is so enmeshed in its own web of financial intricacies that they will never be able to see the relative side of the problem. A salary cut might mean staying afloat for businesses while it just might mean reducing an entire meal a day for a worker’s family of six.
The current recession is primarily the result of money shuffled on virtual equity. Home loans, low interest mortgage rates and overwhelming incentives to low income (or even no income) individuals to acquire a property, triggered off the collapse of the US economy which eventually engulfed the world finances. In the US alone, nearly 1.3 million housing properties were subject to foreclosure activity during 2007. Reported figures say that the US mortgage debt has more than doubled to $10 trillion in 2008 from $5 trillion in 2000. Following the home owners’ ruination, the next big hit landed flush on credit card spenders who are now left with ‘maxed out’ cards and nothing to pay the bills with. Credit card expenditures – incidentally identified in the Islamic banking system as usury – has left lower and middle income groups with staggering amounts in bills with no money to pay it off. The figures are too insane for the layman to make sense with. Ironic though, that while many people risk losing their mortgaged houses propelled by the greed spread by investment banking, others suffer and struggle with inflated prices for their basic needs of nutrition and health. Critical financial mass has resulted in losses on both ends but the fundamentals of survival – relevant.
And as more markets collapse around the world the dichotomy of the economic cave-in enhances how ‘relative’ the concept of money and prosperity is. In Dubai – that most man-made of cities – when real estate and share prices fell, luxury car owners had no liquid cash to pay of their million dollar Mercs and BMWs. And so the story goes that about 30,000 cars were found abandoned at the airports when their owners cut their losses and made a smooth getaway to whichever country they came from to find their pot of gold. Here in Pakistan, I hear the lament of the daily wage worker, who till some months ago was just concerned about making enough for the day to bring home some decent food, but who now also has to worry about enough bus fare to first reach his work place and then about making enough to meet the rising prices of food.
This is not just about disparity. It simply reeks of a greedy world where our cravings for ‘more’ has made us discontent and gluttonous – some more so than others. Is it at all possible to establish a finance system which distributes wealth a little more equitably?
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I don’t ‘do’ Facebook!

It took me sometime to realize how antiquated a picture I was painting every time I said, ‘I don’t do Facebook.’ So when I recently admitted to this social solecism confirming my archaic character to a new acquaintance it was the shock on the man’s face which finally registered the extent of what I had casually declared. A lot fit into place. Like why two of my friends have since a year refused to have anything to do with me and the decline in respect from a few professional contacts who had otherwise thought reasonably well of me.

Some months ago when a colleague had given me a lecture on how I would never rise in the world because I was not connected to this celebrated, greatest, most wonderful of social forums I thought she was exaggerating. But now I am fast beginning to realise that success in any professional endeavour would always evade me if I continue to stay away from this most haunted meeting place of everyone who is or isn’t anyone in the current social realm.

But stubborn as I am, I refuse to ‘join in’ and accept the invitations that keep popping up on my email. The hope though that there are others like me is fast diminishing. All my friends, colleagues, relatives, in-laws and now even my husband has joined the gang. The only one I know who isn’t a part of it are my over 70 parents – even some of their friends are on it!

I am wondering whether this confirms that I am a snob or does it mean that I don’t have the social grace to be a part of ‘acceptable’ society? I had thought that ‘following the Jones’’ was a habit of the bourgeoisie, never to be taken up by anyone who had the slightest claim on having a good upbringing. But my socially/politically/environmentally correct 18-year-old daughter berates my anti-bourgeoisie belief saying that such a notion is based on discriminating values which runs down lesser mortals. But I DON’T run down any mortal. I just prefer to stay away from most!

For the few uninitiated – not that I believe there are any – Facebook is a social utility (website) that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. In further simple English it means that everyone whom you know or don’t know, or whom your friends know or don’t know, or whom your friends or you would want to know or even not want to know may be encountered on Facebook

To me this simply translates into an uncontrolled social orgy. Facebookites – if I may call them so – claim that it keeps them in touch with friends. In touch? They are actually living in each others’ bedrooms, peeping into their closet full of pictures and seeing what they are up to every moment of the day! And never has the old adage of ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ been truer than with the Facebookites. I have seen best friends split because of crazy messages posted on each other’s ‘Wall which everyone’s Facebook profile carries. Someone writes something about someone else’s friend which in turn is viewed by someone’s friend who tells someone what someone has written about him/her and there goes one nasty fight open for EVERYONE to view.

If you think reading this is confusing think how confusing and convoluted so much virtual scribbling actually is. Old fashioned I may be but I’d rather meet up with people I like once in a while and have a healthy meaningful discussion occasionally than prying into what they ate for breakfast everyday or which social gathering they went to. The socialite magazines provide enough of that nonsense!

Already, the art of conversation has nearly died with emails and text messaging but with social web portals like Facebook and previously Orkut the social graces of public behaviour have become more obsolete. Granted that internet and mobile phone technology has simplified life hugely, but being stuck to a machine to the extent of ignoring your immediate surroundings and even family members cannot be deemed healthy by any standards.

I know of one middle-aged man who had to be rushed to the hospital with near kidney failure because he was glued to a virtual chat room for 36 hours without taking a bathroom break! That might be a one-off incident but it definitely reeks of unhealthy tendencies emanating from ‘virtual’ chatting habits.

Incidentally, Facebook tendered an apology recently to its users for creating confusion over the privacy of their content. There was some kind of suspicion over privacy of users' content uploaded on Facebook which was raised after the company changed the language in its 'Terms of Service' , stating that even after users leave Facebook, others would be able to access their information and content like photos and messages. So when Facebook was celebrating its fifth birthday in February its founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg was tendering an apology to its users saying that the new terms were “a mistake that we have now corrected. You own the information you put on Facebook and you control what happens to it. We are sorry for the confusion.”

But how far can one protect information put in a place that is run by people whom no one has ever seen? And more to the point, why impart with private information on public forums anyway?

But mine is probably a lone voice criticizing such forums. As far as I know, everyone from Obama to an obscure school kid is on Facebook and having a whale of a time. Infact, on Obama’s website there are thank you notes to visitors and supporters acknowledging how Facebookites contributed to the US President’s campaign.

So while I remain stubbornly obsolete about joining the Facebook crowd and jeopardizing my own social standing – now publicly – I presume others are sniggering at my lack of ‘internet graces’ and are smug about their own higher social standing. How long I hold out I don’t know but I will definitely exercise my parental right on my soon to be teenaged son for as long as my “because I say so” has the power to terrorize!

It’s a sexist world

By Maheen A Rashdi

Many worthy minds were offended when I allegedly wrote a, ‘blatantly biased conclusion’ of men’s behaviour regarding flirtation. Some said it was ‘appalling in its unapologetically sexist assumptions’ and that it ‘fell short of addressing the grave problem of sexual harassment that women experience on a daily basis in the workplace.’ To begin with, the problem of sexual harassment is not just ‘grave’ it is unpardonable, however the article in question was not about sexual harassment – a crime punishable by law in competent countries – but on a ‘hobby’ which members of both sexes tend to indulge in, in their more frivolous moments.
Nevertheless, it was a sticky subject, and opinions – from moralists, injured parties or any other deliberator – will always differ, which is healthy enough as long as all debaters agree to disagree amicably. But since the spectre of sexual harassment has been raised by some worthy readers in relation to the innocuous habit of flirting, I would like to draw a parallel between sexual insinuations, woman power and our sexist world.
In the US election we saw a lot of woman power. Hillary, riding on her husband’s coattails in an attempt to make history for herself as the first woman president and Palin riding on… well, just riding to reach anywhere hoping someone will give her a giddy up!
Featuring in one of the most significant world event, these women set out with the idea to give the ultimate boost to women’s place in the world. Instead, they seem to have lost a bit more than the election bids, having bruised the collective ego of women all around. Mainly, because they simply could not be seen totally beyond their existence as women.
While Hillary has many competencies and an illustrious resume, she never gained a sweeping support from women because of her obvious lust for power – the lust which made her overlook her husband’s and hence, brought her down in many self-respecting women’s eyes.
And as for Palin, her eye batting and provocative demeanour coupled with her total lack of knowledge showed her to be more eligible either for, America’s next top model (if they adjusted the age restrictions) or ‘Are you smarter than a fifth grader? (On second thoughts, no! Even those kids know that Africa is a continent!).
So feminine charms and high velocity woman power both failed in this round of the US presidency, confirming that we live in a sexist world which sees professional women first as worthy women and then deigns (if they so deserve) to recognize their professional persona. Whereas in most cases, men may be as bigoted as they like in their personal life, it seldom overshadows their professional stature.
Despite her achievements, it is difficult to see Hillary beyond what she accepted as an insulted wife and while enjoying Palin’s beauty and blunders and wanting to ‘hug her’, men would rather have her pin up in their room than give her the vote!
Sexual harassment has many faces. Among the many hidden daggers drawn against women in the professional arena, one is almost always held by a woman colleague. How many times has it happened when a wily woman charms her way into snatching that much deserved promotion from under the competent woman’s nose? And why should men not let themselves get beguiled by these women who feed their ego? After all, history is replete with such incidents which have brought upheavals in the Mughal courts, the Roman Empire, in myths of Greek deities, in harems and wherever else women vie for power. Should this not be called sexual harassment?
Men function on one main premise – to be hailed as great beings! And that quest defines their behaviour towards women in every arena. Some show a truly distinguished character while others remain fit for the dog-house their entire life, not ever rising beyond the concept of women as men’s playthings. And there still aren’t enough laws against this breed who make life hell for their female counterpart.
Our story of evolution however, still continues. And these dastardly behaved individuals should not be allowed to break the feminine essence. Feminism and women’s lib has made great leaps since the early twentieth century when the Suffragate stood up to fight for the right to vote.
But liberated though the modern woman has become, she still often uses her woman power on many levels – conscious and subconscious. Sometimes by defying it totally and appearing as a nominee for the women’s lib award and at other times using it craftily as a weapon to further ambition. The initial victory of women’s acceptance as a force to reckon with has again become lost in translation by confining the concept of liberation to radical clothing or brazen behaviour. Unfortunately, sometimes this gives those who are fit for the doghouse, an excuse to exploit.
Numerous women – despite the odds – have still achieved a perfect balance between professionalism and womanhood to accomplish awesome feats. But for many of us there are still miles to go before all notions of sexism get purged from the human minds. And on the way we will perpetually be treading that thin line to get acclaimed solely for our capabilities without losing our womanliness. Plus, it would be best to prepare for all forms of sexual harassment which will continue impeding our progress on the way – from men as well as women, unless both sexes start believing in their capabilities instead of exploiting the other’s weakness.

Of free speech and fair-play

By Maheen A. Rashdi

'A great many people think they are thinking, when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.' … William James
Does our bigoted world allow free speech to all? No. Some always pay a price.
Early in November, the University of King’s College in Halifax hosted a conference titled; ‘The media’s right to offend: exploring legal and ethnic limits on free speech.’ How far it went in outlining the boundaries for the media and the ethnic limits of free speech is a rather long discussion. For the main part, the conference aimed at attacking religious thought and whether religious sentiments should be a factor in restricting free speech.
The discussions included cases in point in which the main case of recent date and significant media interest was that of Mark Steyn who was put on trial by the Canadian Human Rights Commission for writing an article which could allegedly perpetrate hatred against Muslims.
The real story goes that Steyn, a neo-conservative celebrity writer from Canada, was indicted on the plea of a Muslim law student who took offense at an article written by Steyn on Muslims. Published in Canada’s Macleans magazine (its equivalent to Times and Newsweek), the piece was titled, ‘The future belongs to Islam’ and it went on to make an argument that chances of Muslim hegemony over the world are high since they reproduce at a faster level! The article contained many sweeping statements regarding Islam validated by references to a supposedly authoritative book on Islam – Tahrirolvasyleh – a book written by Ayatollah Khomeini on how to be a Muslim. While the book hardly classifies as a well-known testimonial (the few people I asked, hadn’t heard of it before now), it is probable that it was the most fanatic tool the author could find to lace his story with every kind of extremity that fundamentalists are attributing to the religion.
To cut a long story short, the right wing supporters of freedom of speech were offended when the callow Muslim youth’s opinion was taken seriously by the Canadian Human Rights Commission to put Mark Steyn on trial. The law student who had approached the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) for their support was derided as was the CIC.
A Ryerson University journalism professor who tried to intervene and support the premise of the Muslim student’s plea was accused of acting guilty for being a white man. The comments hurled at the professor at the media conference when he attempted to explain why the Muslim boy was in the right when objecting to the article in Macleans were brutal and nasty. “He is a guilty white liberal who is willing to sacrifice our ancient liberal values of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the separation of mosque and state, in an act of journalistic affirmative action.” This was written by another extreme right winger – author, lawyer, conservative political activist – Ezra Levant (infamous for reprinting the blasephemous cartoons in his magazine Western Standard), who prides himself for his radical activism and may the world be damned.
Freedom of speech has become a strange mantra in this age of excessive legislations on human rights and the accusation of criminalizing indigenous rights. With the world’s virtual space saturated with blogs and interactive forums, speech is not just free but sometimes too cheap. But journalists in newsrooms are mostly careful of not over stretching their ‘right to abuse’. It is a thin balance, but many of us still know how to get a point across without insulting. But there will always be those like Steyn or Levant who like to start a fire just for the heck of it. And when a young hot blood reacts to that, it turns into a nasty brawl and the culprits stand by donning a virtuous expression.
So how much of neo-nonsense being churned out by neo-conservatives should be taken seriously and how much of it should be passed over as poisonous emissions which will dissipate on their own just like all other unpleasant and smelly gasses eventually do.
Sometimes though, I realize it’s not easy to ignore abuse if it really upsets you. You charge into the enemy head first and think of the consequences later – remember Zidane and the 100th minute red card at the 2006 FIFA final? Oh what a head butt that was. And reportedly it was a reaction to what Italy’s Materazzi said about his mother!
But if moral superiority is to be achieved, one should remember that discretion is the better part of valour and with the world’s fingers lifted towards Muslims with or without pretext, it would be better to perhaps bide one’s time and build a counter argument with a sophisticated roll out plan which involves ‘intelligent opinions’.
The freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitations has many ramifications. In truth, freedom to say whatever you want is not given in totality by any country, where subsequent laws governing hate speech, discriminations and prejudices at least attempt to curb outrageous behaviour.
But with social injustice a rampant crime, impartial share of benefits is never possible. The harassed human rights proponents do try their best to protect sentiments of every faction of society but theirs is not an envious job. Being mindful of everyone will end up annoying someone! And that is exactly what the likes of Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant feel. They want to abuse whomever they don’t find fitting in with their description of human codes (as they abuse others of doing) and cannot abide it when their opinion is resisted.
One thing is clear, though. There is neither free speech nor fair-play to be found. It is only the privilege of some to be totally free to maintain opinions and giving others no right to come forth with an objection. While one is called, ‘freedom of expression’ the other is, ‘an intolerant response’. In layman’s term – what’s good for the goose is not good for the gander. – maheenrashdi@yahoo.ca